Political Spring School

Throughout the three days we will focus on how to challenge powerful corporations, political institutions and patriarchal structures. We will learn from each other, challenge and inspire one another and hopefully have a lot of fun! The workshops and practical training will zoom in on strategies for resistance and alternatives, feminist perspectives and bring inspiration from activism and struggles from around the world.

PROGRAM

Friday

10-10.30: Check in with coffee & bread

10.30-14: Power analysis and system critique

Welcome Session

Presentation: Feminism(s) and the critique of power– Loke Bisbjerg Nielsen, DareGenderHow can feminism(s) be used to criticise power systems, and what are the advantages and limits of any social critique?

Workshop: Wall of power, and spectrum of allies Which institutions, corporations and political and economic elites holds power today? And how can we build alliances and challenge them?

14.00-15.00: Lunch15.00-18.00: How do we use our voice and bodies for resistance and fight for alternatives?Workshops # Creative activism & civil disobedience as a tool for challenging power - Marie, Climate collective

How can we include feminist perspectives in our movements? What are the key challenges? And how can we learn from feminist movements in Africa, Asia and América?

Presentations

# Feminist perspectives: from a perspective of struggle in post-colonial Zimbabwe – Glanis, IYWD How has colonisation & neoliberalism impacted the rise of feminist movements? And how does IYWD employ the feminist ideology in their work with young women in Zimbabwe

# Mobilization for women’s rights from the Philippines to the outskirts of Denmark – Jean & Therese

Reflections and learnings from social movements in the Philippines, mobilization of au pairs in Denmark as well as in the Global Mass Movement, one billion rising – A movement fighting against the violence against women.

#Perspectives & reflections from participantsHow do we practice feminism as progressive movements in the North?

Plenum session, Workshop & debate

Shared challenges, inspiration and opportunities for collective change and cooperation

Evaluation & Goodbye with coffee and Cake

*A light Lunch Sunday will be available between sessions and smaller breaks will be included throughout the day.

About the speakers

Glanis Changachirere – Zimbabwe

Glanis is a Zimbabwean feminist and women’s rights activist, and founder of the organization Institue for Young Women’s Development. She has several years of experience in mobilizing young women to challenge patriarchal structures and push for political change in Zimbabwe.

Therese Marie Baba Christensen, DenmarkTherese works with assisting women with an ethnic minority background who are subjected to violence in marriage within the project ‘Vejen til Viden’. This is a collaboration between Dannerstiftelsen and the KIT. Therese is involved with the Philippine militant women's movement for justice, Gabriela, which is frontrunner in the global campaign against violence against women ‘One Billion Rising’.

Climate Collective, DenmarkThe Climate Collective is an anticapitalistic action based collective. Though creative activism and civil disobedience they confront destructive climate and environmental policies and corporations. The collective has experience with civil disobedience from major mass actions such as Ende Gelände, and a blockade of a Danish coal power plant and from the Danish anti-fracking movement against the test drilling done by the French Multinational company Total.

Marie Hagensen, DenmarkMarie has been part of activist circles for a decade and will inspire with stories of creative activism from own experiences, from the Climate Collective, Colombia Solidarity, Makvärket and Internationalt Forum, as well as with stories from political allies around the world.

Loke Bisbjerg Nielsen, DenmarkLoke has a background in Philosophy and African Studies, and has primarily worked with conflict theory in relation to peace and security. Through this work he has recognised the importance of gender and related perspectives in the promotion of peace and human rights. This led him to become active in the organisation DareGender, where he is now a member of the board.

Helen Brewer, EnglandHelen is an artist and activist. Her work is concerned with the understanding of the production of space as an inherently contested social and political process. She works primarily through film, photography, performance and writing.

Alistair Tamlit, EnglandAlistair has lived at Grow Heathrow, which is an occupation against the expansion of Heathrow Airport, for 2 and a half years. He is passionate about tackling the structural inequalities that dominate our world. He organises with Plane Stupid and has occupied Heathrow's runway.

Louise Maria Skotte Møller, DenmarkLouise is a cofounder of Afrika kontakts climate group and holds a BA in journalism. The last 1.5 year she has worked for the Danish Investigative media and research center, Danwatch. Here she has focused on investigative journalism and been part of documenting issues related to major cooperate scandals and environmental issues.

Nanna Clifforth, DenmarkNanna has several years of experience with trade, climate and environmental activism. She is part of the Climate Collective as well as the Danish Food Sovereignty Network. She also works at NOAH- Friends of the Earth Denmark with research and campaigns and has been a teacher at the Danish Højskole program ‘Green Guerrilla’, that focuses on theoretical and hands on knowledge about how build up alternatives for to the capitalist consumer and production systems.

Practical information

The School includes a full three day program (from around 11 am to 6 pm) of combined presentations, workshops and practical training. It will take place at the progressive cultural collective, Makvärket, approximately one hour from Copenhagen. We encourage you to participate all three days, but if this is not possible you are welcome to participate for only one or two days.

Registration and participation fee To register send an e-mail with your name, organization and working group to info@afrika.dkPlease write a few lines about your motivation for participating and hopes/ expectations to the days.

To participate costs 100 DKK a day. This includes fresh organic meals, snacks, coffee/ tea and accommodation in cozy dorm rooms at Mäkvärket.

Deadline for registration: 1st of May - But to ensure a spot on the school you can register already now.